Chapter 16
Torin
My brain feels utterly scrambled as I follow behind Reva and Aster’s forms in various states of undress as they hurry out the door after Kit.
I have no idea what’s going on and I don’t think it’s just because my blood is still rerouting from my cock to my brain.
Only moments ago, I was watching the absolutely glorious sight of Reva coming and being painted with cum in a way that my inner abomination adored.
And now I’m sticky and jogging through the night air after Kit, whose dark hair and bare arse are just visible a few hundred metres in front of us.
The kitchen door is wide open, bathing the outside with purple light. There are a handful of crewmembers eating and chatting away inside, but thankfully, they don’t notice our strange little procession. Aster grabs a lantern and holds it up, lighting our way as Kit continues on.
We follow his bobbing head and lily-white arse right the way through the woods.
Oddly enough, he doesn’t seem to hear us behind him despite the three of us crashing around through the undergrowth.
He reaches the water’s edge and I pick up the pace, hurrying forward to intercept him before he steps into the ocean.
“Hold on, Grandma.” Reva’s hand grips my arm, halting me from going any further. “We need to see what’s happening before we intervene.”
Then Kit stops suddenly and slumps, like someone has cut his strings. There’s no sound other than the wind whistling through the trees behind us and my heart pounding in my ears.
“He’s going to catch his death out here with no clothes on,” I mutter.
Kit begins to move, lifting his right leg and shifting it through the air as though he’s about to take a step before pulling back. He does the same thing with his left foot. Then he repeats the process.
“What is he doing?” Reva mutters.
“Looks like the Hokey Cokey to me,” I reply. “Although I’d like to put a stop to it before he starts wiggling his bare arse about.”
Reva snorts, resting her head against my arm for a moment. “What is going on with you, Kit?” she murmurs under her breath.
The three of us stay quiet, waiting for something to happen, for Kit to move again. Instead, he drops to his knees in the shallow water, his head bowing as though it’s too heavy for his neck.
We hold still as the minutes pass by, but when he continues to remain motionless, I shift from foot to foot and nudge Reva in the ribs.
“Have we waited for long enough?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” she says with a heavy sigh. “He’s going to freeze if we wait too long.”
The words are barely out before we’re all hurrying forward toward his prone form.
“Hey, Kit? How’s about you come back to us now?” I say, grabbing his clothes and tucking his shirt over his shoulders. His skin is chilled to the touch and pebbled with goose pimples and he startles as soon as I put my hand on his arm.
“Wha—where is he?” he utters with a bewildered look around.
“Who? Finch?”
“She... is she here?”
“Reva? She’s right here, bud,” I reply softly, stepping aside so that he can see her.
Kit’s face clouds over with confusion as he shakes his head. “Not her.” He blinks as Reva crouches down beside him. “Not you, sweetheart. Was there... was there really no one else here?”
“Who were you expecting?”
“I don’t know.” He frowns, looking so lost it makes my jaw ache from how hard I’m gritting my teeth. “Was I checking the boundary? There’s a curse right here, but it still seems to be intact.” He glances down at himself. “Why am I naked?”
It’s only because I’m looking right at her that I catch the moment Reva’s face falls. I also see it in her expression as she pushes aside whatever she’s feeling, her face shifting into a mask of concern.
“Come on, let’s get you into some clothes before your cock drops off,” I tell Kit, holding out his trousers and gripping his forearm to keep him balanced as he quickly gets dressed.
“What do you remember from tonight?” Reva asks, and Aster’s shoulders stiffen as he shoots a glance at me. It’s not lost on either of us how much of a kicker it’d be if Kit can’t remember anything from this evening.
“Do you... remember us talking?” Reva continues. “You asked me and Aster to follow you. We did research for a bit, and then you went off with Finch for a while.”
He blinks, frowning down at himself before running his hand through his hair and puts his arm around her shoulders.
“I remember all of that. And I remember what happened after. Thank fuck for that.” He presses a kiss to the top of her head, and Reva relaxes against him, passing her arm around his waist.
“Let’s get you back,” Reva says, urging him forward with a little smile over her shoulder at the two of us. “You need to get warmed up.”
Kit staggers forward a couple of steps before coming to a jerky halt. His movements are stilted enough to look like someone’s still holding his strings. But then he peers over his shoulder at the space where he was kneeling.
“I should check the perimeter,” he mutters.
“I think you’ve done enough ‘checking the perimeter’ to last a lifetime,” Reva replies as Aster says something in another language.
“Aster says that he’ll do it,” Reva says. “So you don’t need to.”
“I’ll go with him,” I say. “We can check the perimeter together.”
It’s not like I can detect any wards, and I’m not certain that Aster can do that much either. But I have a feeling that it’s either us or Kit, and he won’t rest until one of us has made the trek around the island.
It earns the two of us a grateful smile as Reva leads Kit off into the darkness, back toward the house. Aster then steps forward to peer at the sand, using his toe to kick at an invisible line.
“You think he remembers?” he asks me. The words are heavily accented and stilted, but I understand immediately what he’s asking.
“You think that he didn’t? That he’s just saying he did?”
Aster shrugs, and I let out a heavy sigh. Yeah, I’m not sure any of us want to know the answer to that. Especially not Reva.
There are already too many secrets going around, but I don’t think that one would hurt any less by staying that way.
The two of us work our way along an invisible line that Aster seems able to see while I bumble along beside him.
“Can you actually see something there? Or tell where the wards end?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Can’t see anything. Can feel it, though.”
“That’s lucky,” I reply. “Because I’d just be wandering around blindly for a couple of hours, just to appease the two of them.”
He chuckles and gestures back in the direction Kit and Reva headed, giving a little head wobble, like you don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want to. You could head back too.
I have no idea how he can express so much without actually saying any words. I should make some notes, considering I’d rather not talk to most people as a rule. There do seem to be a few exceptions, though. Like Reva. And Aster practically turns me into a chatterbox.
I pull my hands from my pockets and dangle the empty sleeves in front of his face. “You really think you can help me with this?” I ask.
It might be dark out, but the moon is out and is bright enough that he can see what I’m talking about.
He holds his hand up, making a fist and narrowing his eyes at me until I do the same.
Holding up one then two fingers, he twists his wrist to make a thumbs up, inspecting my invisible hand closely.
Then he mimes waving it enthusiastically and—
That’s the moment I realise he’s fucking with me.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” I growl as he shoots me an amused grin. “Can you help, do you think?”
He gives me a brisk nod. “I’m going to do everything I can.”